The Locket
by holwal10
Summary: When a mysterious locket is found in connection to a case, a member of Intelligence's world is turned upside down.
1. Chapter 1

"So what've we got?" Sergeant Hank Voight addressed his Intelligence unit.

Detective Antonio Dawson stepped forward, pinning 2 pictures to the board. "These two, Mary and Colin Harrington. We suspect them of kidnapping and torturing girls." He then proceeds to stick another picture on the opposite side of the board of a severely beaten girl, probably only around 15. "The victim, Jenna Kane confirms that these were the two who kidnapped her and we estimate that they have around 10 other girls trapped where she was"

The rest of the unit exchanged glances. No one liked these kinds of cases, especially Detective Erin Lindsay. She smiled sadly at the board thinking about the other girls and what they must be going through. Usually her partner, Detective Jay Halstead would have sent her a comforting smile or something but he had other things on his mind.

Jay felt confused. His mind was telling him that he knew these people, their suspects but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he knew them from. "Hey Antonio, did either of them have a record?" he asked.

The older detective shook his head. "Absolutely nothing, not even a speeding ticket" This wasn't the answer Jay was hoping for; it only made him more confused. ' _Hopefully, when we catch them I'll get some answers'_ he thought.

A few hours later, the team were stood on a street corner, just metres away from the house they would be searching in a matter of minutes. Jay and Erin checked each other's vests before nodding to Voight. A few minutes after that, Intelligence were approaching the entrance of the property. Breaking down the door, Officer Adam Ruzek entered the house first with his partner, Detective Alvin Olinsky just centimetres behind him. Halstead and Lindsay followed closely after, checking the next 2 rooms after the ones Olinsky and Ruzek had checked. Eventually, the whole house was clear.

All of the unit were looking around when Officer Kevin Atwater shouted from a different room "Hey sarge, I think you're gonna want to see this" Voight trudged into the newly discovered basement that Atwater was in. Cages were set up in rows, with a thin blanket in each. Each cage was no bigger than a small dog kennel. Most of the girls seemed to still be in the cages, although there were two or three empty ones. Voight set to work on calling some ambos to take the girls to the hospital to get checked over.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

After each of the girls were taken to Chicago Med along with Ruzek, Halstead and Lindsay, the remaining members of the Intelligence unit stared bagging up evidence trying to get ID's on some of the girls they had found and the ones who could have previously been in the vacant cages. Antonio was searching one of the cages on the far left side of the room, one of the few that had been without an occupant when something metallic caught his eye. There was a gold chain sticking out from underneath the blanket. Antonio pulled it out to get a closer look and realised it was a locket on a chain. Opening it up he found something that surprised him, a picture of someone he knew.

Pulling out his phone, he dialled Jay's number. It rang a few times before he picked it up.

" _Dawson? Everything okay?"_ He asked.

"Yeah, just a quick question"

" _Shoot."_

"When we were in the house did you go over to the far side of the room, where the empty cages were?"

" _No, I don't think so"_ a puzzled Jay answered, confusion evident in is voice.

Antonio, thinking it over, decided to tell Jay nothing further over the phone.

"Never mind, I just… uh… thought I saw something and Voight didn't agree with me. I thought you might've seen it too." Antonio lied as best he could but he knew it wasn't convincing. Without giving Jay the chance to reply, he ended the call.

Looking at the locket again he wondered if he was mistaken, if it wasn't Jay in that picture. However, the man in the picture couldn't not be Jay: the hair, the eyes, they just looked too similar. And the guy next to him in the picture had to be Will; he'd recognise that ginger hair anywhere. There was one more person in the photograph, someone he didn't recognise. She must have been around 4 or 5 when the photograph was taken which was probably around 10 years ago judging by the fact that Jay looked to be in his early teens. The girl had red hair similar to Will's however she sported a pair of grey-blue eyes, identical to Jay's.

Whilst puzzling over the locket, Antonio hadn't noticed Voight walk up behind him. "Dawson! What are you doing? You've been back here for 30 minutes already!"

"I found something Sarge" Antonio admits, holding out the locket for Voight to take. He carefully takes the locket into his gloved hand and examines it, eyebrows raising at the sight of the picture.

"Maybe Halstead just dropped it?"

"Not possible," says Antonio "he told me that he didn't go anywhere near this side of the room"

Voight looks at Dawson with a confused look. "You told him?"

"No, I just asked him if he had been there or not. Said I had a disagreement with you about something" Voight nods in approval.

"When he gets back to the district, we pull him to one side and tell him in person," Voight says in a low voice "you never know what his relationship might be to her and I don't want one of my detectives being distracted"

Antonio nodded in understanding. He hoped for Jay's sake that the girl in the picture wasn't one of the missing girls.


	2. Chapter 2

Voight collared Halstead as soon as he next set foot in the bullpen.

Jay was heading towards the break room to get a much needed coffee before reading through the statements from each of the girls but Hank stopped him in his tracks and ushered him into his office.

"Take a seat Halstead" He motioned for Jay to be seated upon a chair across from his desk which he did.

"What's this about Sarge?" Jay asks, hoping he hadn't done anything wrong that could warrant him being in this situation.

Voight brought the locket out of his pocket and handed it to Halstead. Jay took the locket and looked it over once before opening it up and examining the picture inside. He inhaled sharply at the sight of the girl. The one he hadn't seen for at least 10 years. "Sarge… where did you find this?"

"It was in one of the cages at the crime scene." Voight paused and took in Jay's reaction, which was mostly confusion and shock, before he continued. "Who is she Jay?"

Halstead mulled the new found facts in his head. It all made sense when Voight showed him the locket. The strange feeling that he knew those people was because he _did_ know those people.

Jay took a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair before he spoke "Her name is Jessica... She's my sister"

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIII_

After half an hour in his office, Jay walked out looking unnaturally pale. Erin looked at him as he walked out, thinking he had just been fired or something but when Jay simply sat down at his desk that theory was disproven. If he had been fired he would have been out right this second, like Sumner was almost a year ago. Voight would never wait till the end of shift for him to leave.

A few minutes later, Voight emerged from his office and after shooting Jay a look that was almost sympathetic, pinned another picture up on the board. All of Intelligence gathered round looking at s picture of a girl who wasn't any older than 6 in the photo.

"Jessica Harrington 16 years old, a possession of hers was found in one of the empty cages. We suspe-"He was cut off by Atwater.

"Wait, Harrington? As in Mary and Colin? They did this to their own daughter? Damn that's messed up"

"Adoptive daughter." It was Jay speaking this time; he rose from his seat and positioned himself in front of the board, addressing the whole unit. "She is my sister. She was adopted by the Harringtons when my parents were deemed unfit. Will and I were too old to be put in the system," He took in a ragged breath struggling with the situation, "she's my baby sister and I let this happen to her."

Voight stepped forward again, continuing from before "As I was saying we suspect that Jessica was one of the girls who weren't there when we stormed the place. No one leaves until she is found. As far as I am concerned, they took one of our own" Everyone nods solemnly. No one was thinking of leaving anyway, especially Erin.

She walked over to Jay's desk once everyone had dispersed and laid a comforting hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, "don't worry Jay, we will find her".

"Er these people, they've been inside my house heck we even had them over or dinner one time. All that time, they were doing this to those girls yet I let Jess go with them"

"You couldn't have known Jay; you weren't even a cop back then."

Jay said nothing; the guilt still plaguing him as if it was a disease and it had spread all over his body. He usually hid his feelings well but this situation was completely different. He thought he'd lost Jess forever when they lost contact after the Harringtons moved to Indiana all those years ago. He remembered how he and Will had tried to get their new phone number but Mary refused to give it to them; saying they wanted Jess to have a stable family and not get too confused. They had said she was happy and that's all Will and Jay had wanted for their younger sibling. Part of him still felt responsible for all of this. He knew that he couldn't have known what they were going to do but that didn't excuse him from not taking care of Jessica. He should have visited her more often.

Lindsay stayed with him for another few minutes before giving him a sad smile and moving back towards her own desk with only one thought on her mind 'we're going to catch these bastards and put them away'.

 _IIIIIIIIIIII_

Jessica Harrington awoke to find that she was no longer in the cage that had inhabited her for the past few months, but in a hotel room. She sat up looking around the room instinctively putting her hand to her head when she felt pain. Nothing seemed familiar in the hotel room except the unconscious forms of the other two young girls in the room. She certainly hadn't been here before but knew that she was still in Chicago. Jess recognised the buildings she could see out of the window. The youngest Halstead put her hand up to her neck, forgetting she had left it behind for someone else to find.

Jess wasn't stupid. She had known that Jenna has escaped a few days ago which meant that the police were going to come sooner or later. 'If only' she had thought at the time 'if only Jay and Will knew'. It was this thought which had given her the idea to drop the locket. They'd identify Jay and Will from the picture and they'd find her. There was no doubt in her mind that they were doing everything in their power to find her. And she was right.

 _IIIIIIIIIIII_

Will Halstead had been doing is usual rounds a Chicago Med when Dr Natalie Manning had approached him. "Hey Will, Jay's here". This immediately sent Will into panic mode.

"Has he been shot or something?" Will asked quickly, hoping to get to his younger brother as soon as possible.

"Oh god no" Nat answered, "he just wanted to see you; said it was relating to an investigation." Will nodded and walked out towards the main entrance to find Jay.

When he caught sight of him, Will knew something wasn't right. Jay was really pale and looked as if he were about to faint. The last time he remembered Jay looking like that was when their mother died.

"Jay," he spoke "what's wrong?"

"Will you need to listen to me carefully. This is gonna be a massive shock but you need to listen to me" the detective looked up at his brother "okay?"

Will nodded, bracing himself for whatever Jay had to tell him.

"It's Jess…"

 **Ending on a bit of a cliff hanger there! Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been a bit ill over the past few days and haven't really had the motivation to do anything.**

 **Next Chapter: Will reacts to the situation with Jess and we find out more about how Jess' life has been with the Harringtons.**


	3. Chapter 3

Jay was stood outside Chicago Med having just told Will the most recent news they had on Jess. Will had thought that Jay was lying to him but now, 20 minutes later, he was starting to believe him.

"Oh my god" were the only word Will could bring himself to say. "Oh my god"

"Will, listen to me. The whole district is working on finding her okay? We will get her back." Will nodded and without letting Jay say anything else, he walked back into the building. He needed to immerse himself into his work. He knew Jay and Intelligence were doing everything they could and right now he needed to be busy, to take his mind off it.

Jay watched his older brother's retreating form disappear into the hospital and contemplated going after him, wanting to comfort his sibling. He ultimately decided against it, Voight had already contacted Sharon Goodwin, making sure to tell her of Will's situation ' _so Will should be fine'_ Jay thought as he walked back to his car but he was really just trying to convince himself.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIII_

Jess watched as yet another car drove past underneath the window. She and Kayleigh (another of the missing girls) were brainstorming ideas on how to get out of here. She knew that Colin had a gun registered to him. He had even taken her to the shooting range a couple of times before she found out the truth.

That seemed like a lifetime ago. The young girl still remembered the day they moved to Indianapolis, that 4 hour car journey had bored her out of her 7-year-old mind. She'd had a nice life up until a few months ago; she missed her brothers of course but they didn't seem to miss her. She never heard from them once and just assumed they didn't want to speak to her anymore. They had always been busy what with her biological mother being sick and her biological father being a drunk. When they moved back to Chicago almost a year ago, the youngest Halstead didn't even attempt to find them, thinking they'd most likely moved to somewhere different.

She then thought back to that day. If only that gas leak hadn't happened at school that day. Then Jess wouldn't have come home early. She wouldn't have witnessed the horrible things her dad was doing to that poor girl. Jess had tried to run but her so called mother had grabbed her from behind and dragged her into a cage. Jess had always been quite a skinny girl so she wasn't able to fight back with much force.

Mary had come to talk to her a few hours later. "Sweetie, I don't know why you are so upset." She had said, looking at Jessica's tear stained face, "you have a perfect family" her voice had almost sounded angry saying that last statement.

"You will never be my family Mary" she'd spat, glaring at her adoptive parent with pure hatred in her eyes.

"Jessica Florence Harringt-"she was cut off by Jessica speaking

"Halstead" she had said in a low, menacing voice, "that will always be my last name" and that was her last memory of that day other than Mary Harrington's fist barrelling towards her face.

 _IIIIIIIIIII_

Jay was tired. That was an understatement; he was exhausted. He refused to lie down even for a minute out of fear that he would miss something. Everyone had tried but even Erin was struggling to get through to him right now.

"Halstead!" Voight barked from across the room, noticing his employee looking noticeably pale "you are going to take a break right now"

"But Sarge-"

"It wasn't a request Jay" He narrowed his eyes at the younger detective who reluctantly went to take a nap in the break room.

With Jay gone, Voight decided to review the case again and he motioned for the team to gather round. "Erin? He asleep?" Lindsay gave Hank a silent nod, indicating that Halstead was indeed passed out on the couch.

"Right," he continued "what's the latest? Anyone strange call the Harringtons recently? I wanna know. I want to know everything about them: what car they drive, their relatives, hell, I even want to know what they had for breakfast this morning" everyone got to work immediately.

"Hey Sarge!" the civilian employee Greg Gerwitz aka 'Mouse' called out a few minutes later. "The same number called Colin Harrington 6 times in the past 2 days, signal is coming from an apartment 2 blocks out."

Hank motioned to Erin and Antonio "Lindsay, Dawson go pick the guy up"

Both detectives were quite close with Jay and felt they needed to help his sister so they both jumped at the chance of an arrest.

Once they got to the address, both Lindsay and Dawson were itching to get their hands on this guy. "Chicago PD! Open up" Antonio bellowed at the door. Around 10 seconds later a woman, dressed in pyjamas opened the door. Her hair was in curlers and she looked as if she had just got up, even though it was 2 in the afternoon.

Lindsay held up the number of the phone that had been calling the Harringtons to the woman. "This your number ma'am?" She asked, letting the woman inspect the digits.

"It's my husband's"

"Is he here?" questioned Antonio

"Yeah he's upstairs. Why don't you officers come inside" She lead the two detective through a hallway into a sitting room where she offered them coffee "I'll go and get Rupert now"

A few minutes later, the woman reappeared with 'Rupert'. He was tall and scrawny, no older than 30 and looked quite on edge.

"You know these people?" Lindsay shoved the pictures of the Harringtons towards him.

"Mary and Colin. Haven't seen them in a while." The man answered cryptically.

"Then why were you calling them half a dozen times over the past couple of days?" Rupert froze in his spot. He quickly tried to reach for his gun which was stored on the table in front of them but Erin had already spied it earlier and was ready to pull her weapon out before he even had the chance to react.

"Get up" she ordered, pointing the gun at the back of his head. "We're going to the district".

 _IIIIIIIIIIIII_

Jess started to taste blood after being hit yet again by her 'father'. She had tried breaking out by smashing the window but had only made a crack before Colin had come in and caught her. He'd hit her once then shoved her down onto the bed and continued punching and kicking her.

Jess knew she didn't have much time left but still tried to fight. She was sure she was going to die until Mary came in at that moment. "Col, the cops are almost here. If we want to get out, we have to go now!" Colin reached for Jess' arm but his wife tugged him away. "She has to stay, we don't have enough time!" she hissed impatiently. The older man nodded at his wife and they both ran out of the hotel room, locking the door behind them.

Jessica Halstead then examined her wounds, hissing in pain as she touched them. She was in pain but one thing made it all worthwhile… Sirens.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIII_

 **Well here's chapter 3! Sorry it took me so long. I'm going on holiday in a week and whilst I'm there I won't be able to post so I'll try and get up another chapter before I go. Enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Come on, can't you go any faster?" Jay asked Erin rather forcefully, his knee bouncing up and down in anticipation. Both were on their way, along with the rest of the unit, to the Acorn Close Hotel which their suspect, Rupert Barnes had reluctantly revealed Mary and Colin Harrington were staying along with the missing girls. Apparently, they were good friends with someone on the staff and had managed to sneak the girls in without anyone noticing.

"Jay calm down" noticing he wasn't paying any attention to her she shouted "Halstead!" His head immediately snapped towards her, hands automatically going for his gun. Realising Erin wasn't in any danger, he relaxed.

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little on edge" he admitted sheepishly. "I'm just worried Erin." Lindsay's hard expression softened a bit at his words.

"I get it Jay, but your head needs to be screwed on straight. You're gonna get yourself or someone else injured if you don't start concentrating. I get that it's your sister but you need to be calm when you walk into that hotel or we might not get her out alive." Erin knew it was a little extreme, lecturing her partner now of all times but she knew he wasn't thinking straight and at the end of the day he was a cop and he was here to do his job.

Jay nodded, understanding his partners' point of view. He was beyond ready to arrest the monsters that had done these inhuman acts towards his baby sister – and many other girls. Those little bastards had to pay.

Pulling up outside the hotel, Halstead and Lindsay met the remaining members of the Intelligence unit who, like them, were all suited up ready to go into the hotel.

"Halstead," Voight turned towards Jay "you sure you can do this?" he asked, concerned for the young detective.

"Yes" Jay answered shortly.

A few minutes later, all of Intelligence was positioned outside the Harringtons' hotel room ready to strike on Voight's mark. He held his hand up, signalling them to go in.

"CHICAGO PD!" Antonio shouted, kicking the door in. There were 4 rooms in total. Lindsay and Voight cleared the first, Dawson and Ruzek took the second and Olinsky and Atwater veered into the third room, leaving Jay to cover the fourth and final room.

Inside the fourth room Jay saw two girls both of which couldn't have been any older than 17 but neither of them were Jess. He shouted to the rest of the team, all of whom joined him in a matter of seconds- except for Atwater. "Where's Kev?" asked Ruzek.

"He's taking care of a girl we found in the third room" answered Olinsky, giving Jay a look. That was all it took for Jay to be sprinting into the next room.

He walked in and his heart stopped. Her auburn locks were matted and dirty like her clothes. She had blood on her face but Jay knew one thing. This was Jessica Halstead.

"Jay?" Jess asked, her pale blue eyes widening in disbelief. "Is that really you?" Tears were forming in Jess' eyes now as she took in her older brothers' appearance.

Jay nodded and stepped towards her, engulfing her in an emotion filled hug. One that started to heal the hole Jessica had had inside her for the past few months. "I missed you baby sis" he laughed as his eyes shone with unshed tears of happiness.

The happiness was unfortunately short lived as Jess suddenly went limp in Jay's arms. "Jess?" he shook her gently and checked her pulse. _It was weak_. "Come in sis, don't do this to me now" he mumbled to her as he lifted her up and ran into the next room. "How far out is the ambo?" He shouted to Erin.

"Ten minutes" she answered looking at the girl in her partners arms. "What the hell happened?"

"She just passed out" Jay answered, visibly panicking. "We can't wait for an ambulance; we'll have to take her in our car"

Lindsay nodded. Jay was right, they didn't know what was wrong with her and it was best to get her to Chicago Med as soon as possible. "Voight, call Med, tell them were on our way" she said as Jay rushed out of the hotel room towards the elevator. Hank nodded and whipped out his phone doing as Erin had asked.

On the ride over to Med, Jay sat in the back seat comforting a now conscious Jess, whispering soothing things into his little sisters' auburn hair.

Jess felt like her stomach was on fire. Never before in her life had she experienced as much physical pain as this. She couldn't help but groan, alerting Jay and Erin of just how much pain she was in. She could just make out the bright hospital sign before she fell into unconsciousness again.

Jay gathered his younger sisters' small body into his arms and ran through the emergency doors. "Someone please help her" he shouted helplessly.

Dr Manning was the first to recognise him. "Jay, what happened? Can I get a gurney over here please?" About half a dozen doctors and nurses rushed towards Jay, removing Jess from his grasp.

"She just collapsed, I don't know why. We did the bust, I found her in the room and then she passed out." Natalie nodded and turned towards Maggie.

"Can you page Will for me please?" she asked sweetly. Maggie nodded in response, taking out her pager. Nat turned back to face Jay. "What's the girl's name?"

"Jess… Jessica Halstead" Dr Manning's eyes widened in realisation. She knew Jay was usually calm and collected but when he walked in she could see that he was hysterical. It all made sense now.

"Come on Jay, go sit down in the waiting room. I'll go and find your brother." He thanked Natalie and watched as she departed, his own terrified thoughts consuming him.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIII_

Nat reappeared about 10 minutes later with Will in tow "Where is she Jay? Where's Jess?" Jay just shook his head at his older brother.

"I don't know, they took her away from me after I carried her in here. Last I heard she was in surgery" Will looked at his brother in shock.

"You carried her all the way here?' He asked in disbelief.

"No, Erin and I took her in the car. The nearest ambo was too far away" Will nodded and took a seat in one of the waiting room chairs. "What are we supposed to do now Will?"

"Now" Will answered "we wait"

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

 **Well as I said in the last chapter, I won't be updating for a while as I am going on holiday and will not have access to a computer. I will continue writing as soon as I get back though so it shouldn't be too long before a new chapter is ready! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter- what do you think is going to happen next? Until next time…..**


	5. Chapter 5

An agonizing few hours later, Dr Connor Rhodes walked through the doors to the waiting room to inform the Halsteads of their sister's condition. When he approached them, he noticed slight snores coming from the mouth of Jay. He reached his hand out to wake he younger Halstead brother, only to be swatted away by his colleague.

"Don't wake him Connor, this is the first time he's slept in the last two days" pleaded Will, happy that Jay could finally sleep after worrying non-stop.

Reluctantly, Connor pulled his hand away "Okay, but if he asks why I didn't tell him about your sister sooner, it's all on you."

Will nodded. "How is she? Is she gonna be okay?" asked the oldest Halstead sibling hopefully.

"Well, she sustained a couple of broken ribs, possibly from being beaten up. One of the broken ribs was pushing against her lung but luckily there was little internal bleeding so we were able to stop it and move the rib back into place. She is resting now but you can still go and see her." Conner informed Will who breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm going now" he said, scribbling a quick note for Jay to read when he woke up.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIII_

Jay Halstead awoke to find a piece of paper attached to his jacket. ' _Typical Will'_ he thought.

Feeling for his phone, he checked the time before reading the note. It was 6:00 am on the dot. Jay didn't know why but he'd always wake up at 6 with or without an alarm, just like clockwork every morning. It used to irritate his parents and brother when he was a child. Jay was a clumsy child so at 6 in the morning when he was trying to grab some food he'd usually end up slipping and making a noise that woke the whole house up.

' _Jay- Went to see Jess, she's fine. Room241- Will._ ' The note read.

It made Jay give out an irritated sigh, why hadn't he been woken when the doctor came to discuss Jess? He wondered as he speed walked down the hall, looking for the room Jess was in.

When he finally found his younger sisters room, he noticed Will sat in the chair next to her bed, holding her hand. As he walked further into the room, he saw Jess' sleeping form in the hospital bed. He carefully dragged up a chair to the opposite side of the bed and held Jessica's other hand. Neither brother spoke, both consumed in their own thoughts and praying for their baby sister to wake up.

Within the next couple of hours, neither Will nor Jay moved from their positions. Erin had stopped by to bring some food for them both and a change of clothes for Jay which were still where she had left them; on the table at the back of the cramped hospital room.

"You should go and get changed" Will said to his brother "seriously, there's a bathroom just down the hall. I'll text you if she wakes up" Jay reluctantly got up from his sitting position and went to get changed.

Jess suddenly felt one of her hands be moved; the temperature of it went slightly cooler as though they were missing the presence of something that was there a mere few seconds ago. The other one however was still warm. It felt like there was a heater attached to it. She suddenly realised that her warmer hand was being held.

' _It has to be Will'_ she thought. Her eldest brother had always had warm hands throughout her childhood, she had enjoyed holding onto them to warm herself up.

A few minutes later, Jess started to hear the muffled voices of two men talking, one of them seemed to have just entered the room as his voice was far away and was getting closer. As the voices became clearer she recognised one of them, it was Jay. She came to a conclusion that the other voice must be Will and her suspicions were confirmed when she had the strength to open her eyes.

All the Halstead siblings took a minute to take each other in; they were all finally in the same room after so many years and were quite overwhelmed.

Jess was the one to break the silence. "Well…" she wheezed, still weak from her surgery "are you just gonna stand there all day or are you gonna hug me" she laughed, a single tear dripped from her eye and rolled down her cheek.

She was caught up in the middle of hugs and kisses to the top of her head. Jess closed her eyes and breathed in both their scents, she had forgotten over the past few months, how it felt to be loved and she felt as if the hole made inside of her by Colin and Mary was slowly starting to heal. She knew it would take time before their horrible actions could be moved past but she knew that with both her brothers by her side that she could beat this.

"Thank you" she whispered to Will and Jay, beginning to become sleepy from the meds being pumped into her.

"Why are you thanking us?" asked Will.

"Because you're here' Jess answered, closing her eyes and letting sleep consume her.

Jay smiled at the sight of his sister finally seeming to have some peace. He was ready to help her on her long road of recovery and knew that Voight and the rest of intelligence were doing their best to make sure that neither Colin nor Mary Harrington would see anything but the inside of a jail cell ever again. Something deep inside told him it wouldn't be easy but he was determined to get justice for Jess and all the other victims that were preyed upon by their vile antics.

"We'll nail 'em, don't worry babe" Jay hadn't noticed Erin enter the room and smiled at his girlfriend's comforting words.

"I know" he said.

Erin grinned and fished her phone from her pocket "and after we do, I can use these photos to my advantage" Jay looked to her phone and saw she had pictures of the hug that he, Will and Jess were sharing only moment ago.

"Oh really?" he asked, a glint in his eye as he leaned forward to peck Erin on her lips. _Maybe things weren't going to be so bad after all._

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

 **I'm back! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was having some issues with the documents uploading to the site. Anyway, hope you liked that little bit of Linstead at the end there. What do you think is going to happen next? How do you guys like the story so far?**

 **Just want to say a massive thank you to those who have reviewed, favourited, and followed 'The Locket'. I couldn't have asked for a better response! Until next time…**


	6. Chapter 6

*2 Weeks Later*

"Jess, hurry up!" Jay banged on the bathroom door, becoming irritated with his younger sibling. "You've been in there for half an hour"

Both Will and Jay had decided that Jess would be better off living with Jay for the time being. Both brothers had strange shift patterns but Jay was less likely to be working through the night, plus he did have a small spare bedroom for Jess to stay in. Will would come over frequently to visit, bringing their sibling bond closer than it had been in a long time.

The lock turned in the bathroom door and the youngest Halstead sibling stepped out, an innocent look etched upon her face. "I'm done now" she stated, walking into the kitchen with Jay in tow.

"You do realise that you have to be at school in like 20 minutes right?" Jess shrugged, her expression changing to a hard one that was trying to show no emotion.

"What if everyone asks me loads of questions?" Jess asked nervously. "What if they ask me why my last name changed or why I haven't been in school for almost 4 months?" the youngest Halstead started pacing. "Seriously Jay, I don't think I can do this, I'm not ready. I-"

She was cut off by firm hands gripping her shoulders. "Listen to me, you'll be fine. It's your decision whether you answer their questions or not." Jess visibly relaxed at Jay's words. "If anyone starts harassing you, just tell them your brother a cop" Jess chuckled.

"Remind me never to bring a boy over. On second thought, why not? It'd be really fumy to see you frisk a guy as he walks into your apartment".

"Laugh all you want," Jay told her "but know that I will do that and I will also background check them"

"Jayyyyyyy"

"Jay Halstead, are you terrorising your little sister?" Both siblings turned to look at the door as they heard the familiar voice of Jay's partner.

Jess went wide eyed and shrank back slightly. "Detective Lindsay, what are you doing here?"

Erin walked over to Jay and placed a cup of coffee in his hand, before kissing him on the cheek. This caused even more confusion for Jess who couldn't work out why Jay and Erin were acting so 'couply'.

Luckily, Jay picked up on this and quickly realised his mistake. "Oh my bad. Jess, meet Erin Lindsay: my partner slash girlfriend"

"You waited till now to tell me you had a girlfriend?!" Jess exclaimed "Nice to meet you Erin"

"Likewise" Erin answered politely, and then she turned to her boyfriend. "You are useless"

"Tell me about it" Jess sassed.

"Hey," Jay feigned hurt, checking his watch as he did so. His eyes widened as he looked at the time. "Oh god, we have to go. Like now!"

 _IIIIIIIIIIII_

Jay watched nervously as Jess' figure faded from view inside the school. "She'll be fine." Erin assured him, starting up the vehicle again.

"How can you be so sure?"

"She's just like you" Erin explained. "She's strong and determined. It actually scares me how similar your personalities are."

Erin's words comforted Jay quite a bit but he still felt uneasy. This was the first time in the past 2 weeks that he had let Jess out of his sight. A lot could go wrong and he didn't like not being in control of the situation.

As he was mulling these thoughts over in his head, Jay hadn't realised that Erin had already pulled up at the district. "Hey" Erin snapped him out of his trance, "stop worrying and get your cop head on or I swear I will get Voight to put you on desk duty!" Jay visibly gulped. Not wanting to cross Erin and end up on desk duty, he put all thoughts about his sister aside and stepped out of the car.

As he stepped into the district, Jay felt like he was home. He hadn't been here for 2 weeks, having taken time off to take care of Jess and had almost forgotten the familiar smell of crappy coffee and deodorant.

"Good morning Erin!" greeted Sargent Platt cheerily, her smile falling short a she turned to look at Jay "Chuckles." She acknowledged him with the usual level of sarcasm.

"Morning sarge" Jay greeted, as he and Erin buzzed themselves up into Intelligence.

 _IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_

Overall, it was a pretty slow day for the Intelligence Unit. They had just closed another case 2 days prior to Jay's return and no new ones had cropped up since then. Luckily, Jay had managed to keep himself busy with paperwork from his 2 week departure and hadn't really thought about Jess all day.

She had texted during lunch and had asked if she could invite a friend round for dinner that evening. Jay had been glad of this message as it implied that all was going well and Jess seemed to be falling back into her old school life very naturally. He wondered if it would be the friend he had heard so much about from Jess. She had mentioned a girl called Ebony many times over the past 2 weeks and looked forward to meeting the girl who seemed to be his sister's best friend.

Looking up from his paperwork he noticed other members of Intelligence beginning to grab their coats, ready to go home for the night. Jay locked his paperwork away in his drawer and made his way over to where Erin was waiting by the locker room.

"Hey" he greeted her with a kiss.

They both made their way down the stairs and out towards Erin's car "Listen," Jay said "Jess is bringing over a friend for dinner tonight and I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"

Erin smiled at her partner's request, unlocking the car and nodding heartily "I'd love to!" Both detectives got into the large black vehicle as Erin navigated her way to Jay's apartment block, exchanging friendly banter on the journey.

Once at Jay's apartment, they were both discussing what meal they would prepare for the no doubt hungry teenagers on the other side of the door.

"Jay, just cook pasta or something" Erin tried to convince her boyfriend "you don't need to go all out"

"I guess your right" Jay admitted, opening the door and stepping inside.

"I always am" she laughed and Jay smiled, until he heard a noise which had both him and Erin pulling their guns out and rushing further inside the apartment: two high pitched screams coming from the living room.

 _IIIIIIIIIIII_

 **Well, that marks the end of another glorious chapter! Hope you enjoyed! Please review, favourite follow etc.**

 **Until next time…**


	7. Chapter 7

Both Erin and Jay burst into the living room only to find the lights off and Insidious playing on the TV. Two girls were sat on the couch: one being Jess and the other being a girl with short blonde hair.

Jess turned round and shouted "What the hell Jay?" Both Halstead and Lindsay put their guns back in their holsters.

"What?" Jay asked, casually grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl and taking a bite. "We reacted as any cops would've done" he stated.

Jess rolled her eyes and turned to her friend on the couch "Jay this is Ebony, Ebony meet Jay: my completely insane brother and his girlfriend Erin"

"Hi, it's nice to meet you" muttered Ebony shyly.

Jay muttered a hi in response then proceeded to walk into the kitchen and prepare dinner.

"So…" Erin changed the subject "how was the movie?"

Jess smiled at Erin's effort and answered "it was great actually until you both deciding to come in here all guns blazing!"

"Sorry Jess, we just heard the screams and our natural instincts took over."

"So what's for dinner?" everyone had completely forgotten about Ebony sitting on the couch and it shocked Erin to hear such an unusually deep voice come from the young girl's mouth.

"I think Jay might be making pasta or something."

Jess smiled to herself "that's my favourite"

CPDCPDCPDDCPD

"Bye Ebs, see you tomorrow!" said Jess as she closed the door. Erin had offered to take Ebony home to make sure she was safe. Ebony had insisted on walking home but Erin had practically forced her to agree, knowing what could happen to young girls at night in the city of Chicago.

When Jess finished locking the door, she turned around to be met with a satisfied smile upon her brother's face. "What?" she asked him.

"You made a friend," Jay explained, walking over to wrap his younger sibling in a hug, "I'm proud of you."

Jay squeezed Jess tight in his arms without realising it and something snapped within her, her 'father' used to hug her before they locked her away and all the memories came rushing back at once. She looked up and saw Jay's body but with Colin's head on it. "No," she begged, "please don't hurt me"

Jay, hearing his sister's pleas, quickly let go of her and saw her breathing rapidly and looking at him with wide eyes. "Hey, Jess it's me… its Jay."

"NO!" Screamed Jess "please just stop, I'll do anything."

Jay started to internally panic, Jess was showing signs of PTSD, and he knew what that was like. As an attempt to calm her, he gently took Jess' face into his hands, gently turning her head to look him in the eyes. "See, it's just me, I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise."

After hearing those reassuring words from Jay, Jess slowly snapped out of her panicked state and looked into Jay's blue eyes. "Thank you" she whispered, her face deathly pale.

"It's okay," said Jay, sitting her on the couch "Hey, I think I'm gonna set you up an appointment with Dr Charles, he might be able to help you"

"Jay, I don't want a shrink," exclaimed Jess "I already feel like a nutcase"

Jay furrowed his eyebrows, worried for Jess. He knelt down and placed a comforting hand on her leg. "Hey, listen to me." Jess looked up slightly, "you are not a nutcase, alright. Hell, I'm wondering how you're getting through this, but you are. And Dr Charles isn't like most shrinks. He's a good guy, I promise." Jess sighed, thinking about it. She still wasn't sure about seeing a shrink, even if Jay was persistent that Dr Charles was a good guy.

Jess slowly stood up, avoiding Jay's gaze "I need time Jay, let me try to figure this out on my own, please?" she sighed "you said it yourself, I'm getting through this, that's gotta count for something right?"

"I'm just trying to protect you." Jay tried to reason.

Jess' eyes watered and she turned to look at her brother, "I appreciate that, but you can't protect me from the memories." And with that, Jess walked away into her bedroom. She knew that Jay had her best interests at heart but she also knew he couldn't fight this battle for her. She needed to fight her own demons and he couldn't help her with that.

Jay on the other hand didn't understand. After all, he was only trying to help and Jess is pushing him way. It kills him that he wasn't there for her when she needed him most but he's trying to make up for it. Is he smothering her too much? Was there something that happened that he doesn't know about? He has no idea but he wishes that Jess would just talk to him.

He just wants to protect his little sister…


End file.
